


Resurrected spirits, resurrected hopes

by ManInSilverAndBlack



Series: The young dreamers [3]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: And Frisk Can't Reset Anymore Anyway, Asgore Needs a Hug, Basically Everyone Needs a Hug, Chara Could Use a Hug Too, Chara and Frisk Share a Body, Except for Sans, Female Chara (Undertale), Flowey needs a hug, Gen, It's An Undertale Fanfic, Male Frisk, Minor Character Death, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Pre-Canon Flashbacks, Sans Doesn't Need a Hug, Sans Doesn't Remember Resets, Soft Chara, That's Not How He's Portrayed In Game, Though they're both in flashback, minor depictions of violence, plz Don't Make Sans Into Depressed Suicidal Emo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-04 16:13:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11558799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ManInSilverAndBlack/pseuds/ManInSilverAndBlack
Summary: Sans might not be the most helpful or hard-working person around and never makes promises - but he'll always make sure you keep those you made. Especially when he believes it's for your own good.





	Resurrected spirits, resurrected hopes

**Author's Note:**

> It's a loose continuation to <http://archiveofourown.org/works/10560358/chapters/23329468> . You might want to read this first.

Frisk slowly raised small piece of cardboard and moved it around for a moment until he saw a laser mark on it. He waved to Sans, who carefully picked up a laser pointer lying on a makeshift stand and put a rangefinder in its place. He wrote down measured distance before looking back at Frisk and making a pushing motion with his hand - "stand back." Frisk stepped to the side - and just a moment later Sans appeared just where boy was standing a few seconds ago, holding small bag with some tools - a bubble level, an inclinometer, a goniometer, and afromentioned pointer and LRF.

"okay, that should be the last one for now. thanks, kid."

Frisk and Sans spent last few days discreetly measuring distance between semingly random points all around the town. Using those distances and geometry far too complicated for Frisk to understand, Sans was slowly redesigning his shortcuts. There was still some work to be done, but he had already wroten down some of the most important locations, as well as several temporal waypoints to help him calcualte the distance between those.

Right now they were walking down the stairs, having measured the exact distance between two neighboring blocks of flats. Sans mostly chosen places where there wasn't much risk of somebody noticing him - corridors there weren't perfect, but good enough for temporary points of reference.

"Sans... we actually meant to ask you about something. Me and Chara, I mean."

"what is this?"

"You need to know exact distance to teleport, and actually had to measure the whole Underground alone... but back when I still could reset, there was this one timeline... you did actually start at one point to just jump from place to place like nothing, even though you couldn't possibly know the distance..."

Sans raised one eyebrow. One half of his frontal bone. Whatever.

"...did i? probably had a good reason... just what happened back then?" For all his knowledge about resets, he couldn't actually remember them.

"Umm... I... can't remember clearly..." Just how is he supposed to tell him that in that timeline they tried to  _kill_ each other (and Sans actually succeeded, multiple times), and said warps were skeleton's increasingly frantic and desperate attempts at dodging?

"ya see, when using a shortcut, i actually create... let's call it a tunnel. it has certain, exact lenght, goes certain, exact direction and swaps around all the matter that enters with the matter on the other side... well, almost. it doesn't take any gaseous matter from its entrance and doesn't take any livin' matter from it's exit - it actually won't work if it materialises atop somethin' alive..." Sans realised that Frisk stopped listening around the word "tunnel". "...well, long story short, i don't need distance, direction or angle to create shortcut, but i need it to make it safe to use. y'know, just several feet off and i might end up inside a wall. but a short tunnel to the place i can see isn't as dangerous to create blindly as a long one, leading to the other end of town... you understand?"

"...I think so..."

" _I did."_ Chara spoke from inside his head. Sans couldn't hear it, but he wasn't going to repeat anyway.

"so... i also got a question." Dang! Is he now going to start asking them out about that one timeline? "did ya two speak with toriel and asgore about that...  _sonflower?_ "

Well... he wasn't going to.

Well... they didn't.

"Not yet. We're waiting for a right opportunity..."

"kid. you're livin' with tori, and you visit asgore almost every day. what opportunity are you waitin' for?"

"I need them together and calmed down..."

"woah, woah. frisk, are you sure that all that playin' with space-time continuum didn't do anything bad to your sense of realism?"

"You said it yourself that sooner or later they  _will_ get back together..."

"it'll take months - and they should learn about it as fast as possible."

Frisk sighed.

"Just how do you see it? Should I come to them and say something along the line of <<Hi, mom, dad, do you remember that evil flower that almost killed me, then almost killed you, then almost killed us all, and currently is sharing room with me and trying to kill me every few hours? Well, that's actually your long-dead biological son, resurrected as not-fully-monster, not-fully-human, not-fully-plant. And while we're at it, your adoptive daughter who died along with him is also there, living in my mind, possessing me whenever she sees fit and plaguing my life with incidental puns...>>"

" _Incidental? You always said that you find them_ Chara- _ming..."_

_"I never said anything like that!"_

Sans couldn't hear boy's internal argument, but smirked at it anyway.

"anyway, asgore is havin' a free weekend and i invinted him to go fishing. how 'bout ya come with us 'n' take flowey with ya? it might be an opportunity you're seekin', and i'll be around to help ya out..."

Fishing? Frisk never tried it before and never actually had much occasion for this.

"Maybe..."

"come on. are you really considerin' it an option, or just sayin' so 'cause ya want me to stop pesterin' ya?"

Frisk winked quickly two times with his left eye, and then repeated it with right. It was a sign they came up with to let Sans know that it's Chara speaking.

"Sans, why exactly do you want it so much? What exactly will change once everyone knows I am still here?"

"didn't i tell ya already? i just hate bein' the responsible one, but with no one else knowin' about what's goin' on inside your head i have to. that's the only thing i wanna change."

"...Sounds reasonable."

"exactly my point. ya see what you two have done with me already!? do i ever sound reasonable!?"

"Oh okay, okay. We'll try to talk about it. But can't promise anything. You hate making promises - and so do I."

* * *

"I am not going anywhere with you, how many times should I repeat!?"

Frisk spent last few days slowly accustoming Flowey with the fact that he'll have to spend this one weekend with Sans and Asgore and finally reveal his true identity. Flowey was very opposed to that idea.

And both of them knew that no matter how much objections, threats and pellets Flowey throws around, he has no real way of preventing this from happening.

"Flowey, you can't just sit your whole live at home. I know what happened. I know that it's hard for you... but you shouldn't give up. You can't give up and can't separate yourself from everything."

Flowey glared at him.

"You don't even actually want me to live with this, right? I know it. You just want to fix me up so you no longer have to care about a demonic flower. You want to fix up Chara so you won't have to live with an actual demon in your body anymore." Flowey's face distorted and warped into a fanged jaw with small eyes. "There is no hope for us! You're stupid, Frisk! STUPID! AND YOUR STUPID HOPE, YOUR <<DETERMINATION>> WILL ONLY BRING YOU PAIN!" Flower turned away and hid his face in petals. Frisk could still see as his mouth warps again, gaining a fanged smile. "You're so sure that you can bring me back... you want to give hope to everyone... okay then. But there is no way. I tried everything. EVERYTHING! I CAN'T BE SAVED, IDIOT!" He turned around so fast, Frisk reflexively made a step backward, and looked at the boy with bloody red eyes. "But if you want to try... go ahead. You will bring hope to everyone... hope for the impossible to happen... and when it doesn't happen? When they lose hope? It will only bring them pain..." A psychotic chuckle came out of him. "And you know what? IT WILL ALL BE YOUR FAULT." His twisted and melted face wouldn't be too out of place in a horror. And then... he smirked, as he came up with yet another idea. "Sooner or later you'll also lose hope... and then what? You only took care of me out of pity, but when you stop believing? YOU WILL THROW ME AWAY, 'CAUSE I'LL BE TOO MUCH OF A HASSLE TO LOOK AFTER, RIGHT!?" He breathed heavily through stomates, huge grin not leaving his fanged mouth even for a moment.

Frisk just sighed, moved closer and put his hand on Flowey's perianth, moving his fingers through petals.

"How can you know it's impossible? You were trapped Underground the whole time. There is much more to do here. We might find a way. And if it doesn't help..." It was his turn to smile - but rather than a sick, scary smirk, he sent Flowey a honest, reasuring grin. "Hey, Asriel. You're still my brother. The closest thing I ever had to one, at least. You don't leave your family just because you can't help them."

Flowey snorted.

"We'll see. You'll get bored of me sooner or later. And don't call me that name! HE'S NOT THERE ANYMORE, HE WON'T COME BACK! I AM NOT HIM, I'LL NEVER BE HIM!" Flowey trashed around his pot, trying to hit Frisk with a vine. He leaned over to him just as Toriel opened the door and entered - making him lose his balance and fall on the floor along with the pot, scattering soil everywhere. Toriel looked at him disapprovingly.

"Once you've finished arguing, come over to the living room. Sans should be here soon, and I need to give you lunch."

"Okay, mom. We're all packed and ready."

"Okay... mom." That last word sounded rather ironically coming from Flowey, but Frisk really insisted on him calling Toriel this way.

Flower slowly raised himself and let Frisk replant him in the pot.

"I am not going anywhere." He said without conviction as Frisk put him on the cart he and Asgore made for him. "Just leave me here and go without me." He rolled his eyes as boy, ignoring him, picked up a brush (which he and Toriel just decided to keep in his room after Flowey fell over for third time) and started sweeping soil on a dustpan. "I don't need anyone and no one needs me. Why do you insist on making me more sociable?" He moved slightly as Frisk poured compost back in the pot.

"Just stop already. You'll go with us and tell dad everything. It's for your good. There _must_  be some way to help you."

Flowey just sighed, extended his vines and started pushing the cart towards the door like a wheelchair.

* * *

Normally Sans wouldn't bother with something as time-consuming as making a driving licence - but Papyrus really insisted that they do it together, and when Papyrus wanted something from his brother, he'd always get it. Unless he wanted him to stop pranking people and telling them bad puns. In this case his endeavors only made the matter worse.

The car he rented for weekend had four seats and trunk big enough to hold all their fishing rods, buckets, a tent, food for several days, Flowey's cart and a bag of compost just in case if Flowey would have to be replanted for any reason.

Frisk was sleeping on the back seat (much to the annoyance of Chara, trapped in his body and unable to move), with Flowey sitting on his lap. The flower had headphones on and was listening to music on boy's phone - it was the only way to make sure he'll stay calm and won't do anything stupid through the whole journey.

Asgore meanwhile, sitting in the passenger seat next to Sans, was lost deep in his own thoughts.

He knew it. Ever since he saw that flower attacking them outside the Barrier, he knew he already saw him somewhere before. It took him some time - but he finally figured it out.

* * *

It's been six years ago, soon after the sixth soul was delivered at his palace. Gerson's report was basically a long series of kicks in the gut for him. Heck, even his condition alone was already too much. Captain of the Royal Guard had trouble even staying conscious, with many cuts and bruises all over his body, broken wrist and a large, dusty bullet wound in his shoulder. Just a few inches to the right and he would probably be dead - and Undyne, helping him to stand upright while herself visibly exhausted, looked even worse. Half of her head was wrapped in bandages - and when asked about it, she just lifted them slightly, revealing a huge, gaping hole dripping with dust where her left eye used to be, before quickly wrapping them again. It was a real shock for the king and he couldn't stop blaming himself. She was just seventeen and only in the Guard for a year - and yet he himself hand-picked her for this mission! He himself foolishly tought that just because he trained her personally, she is more suited for the task than more experienced soldiers! If she was going to spend rest of her life terribly maimed, it was all his fault. It was his fault that she almost died. And it was his fault that when she finally comes back home after her wounds are treated, her parents will probably have trouble even recognising her at first.

But wounds of the two were nothing compared to how Asgore felt when he realised that all the other members of six-monster squad sent to capture the human are dead. No other Fallen ever killed anybody. Why would this one decide to?

Answer came quickly, and Asgore would actually prefer to never have heard it.

Unlike other Fallen Humans, this one - a girl, seemingly around seventeen years old, carrying a gun and, surprisingly, what seemed to be magical ring - didn't get there by accident. She was looking for her brother, who disappeared several years earlier near Mount Ebott - and when she learned about what happened to him (and four other children), she vowed to hunt down Asgore, and then find out just who murdered the boy - and kill them too.

She didn't want to hurt anyone else - and didn't, up until confrontation with the Royal Guards. And even then she only drew her weapon after recounting her story to Gerson and making sure neither he or others will back away - and with combination of powerful spells, accurate shots and dodges so casual, they seemed like she actually saw the attacks before they even came killed four of them before Undyne finally striked her down with a volley of spears.

Few days later, an unexpected guest arrived at his palace.

Strangely, Asgore couldn't remember who was the previous royal scientist or what really happened to them - but he remembered how great they were at their job. For long time their laboratory stayed empty and aside from occasional dusting it was never visited as king was looking for a new scientist. It took him almost a year before he finally decided. Two young monsters - Alphys Geck and Sans Gaster (that surname actually rang a bell, though Asgore couldn't remember just where he actually heard it before). Alphys was a lab assistant to the previous scientist and Sans' wit and cleverness convinced him that he really can trust him with this job. Besides, there really weren't much monsters willing to take that job.

It was several weeks ago and since then he didn't hear much from them. They mostly spent their worktime tidying up the lab, examining blueprints and machines left by their mysterious predecessor and planning out their work. This day, Alphys came to him.

She found what seemed like a schematics of a human soul - and came up with an idea of empowering a monster soul so it could substitute for one. Asgore was very hesitant about it, but finally agreed. He let the scientists take the already collected souls and try getting to the source of their power. And, to his surprise, they succeeded.

After another few days, Sans visited the palace. They needed something to experiment on. Flowers seemed good for start.

After several days of experimenting on flowers the two finally started injecting monsters with the soul essence (which Alphys decided to call Determination). They found several dozen of dying monsters all around the Underground and brought them to the lab in hope that Determination might empower their souls.

Some time after this Sans left the lab in great anger. He quit the scientist job, leaving Alphys alone. It wasn't until the day the Barrier was broken that Asgore learned why.

Soon after Sans left, Alphys sent the flowers and souls back to the palace, for some reason staying completely silent about results of injecting monsters.

Souls seemed intact and flowers mostly didn't show any signs of being experimented on.

One was gone. Asgore wouldn't notice it normally - but it was the one that Alphys selected personally for experiments, the one much bigger than other flowers in the garden. Alphys had no idea where it could disappear. It seemed like yet another mystery that will never become fully solved.

* * *

Asgore turned to look at Flowey. Could it be?...

He did resemble those golden flowers very closely - six golden petals, short stalk, rather big leaves, no thorns. He was, however, much bigger than those. Asgore never actually saw a monster like him before - but what if he WASN'T actually a monster? After all, experiment accidentally brough several monsters back to live. If that was how Flowey was born... it would explain why that one flower disappeared. And since he isn't even a monster in the first place... that's how he's able to survive without a soul!

Everything slowly started falling to place. But... there were still some questions.

Why no other flower awakened?

How can he use magic with a fully physical body and without a soul?

And just what exactly seems so familiar about him?

He didn't count on answers showing up anytime soon.

* * *

They stopped near a lake, close to a river mouth, near Mount Ebott.

They didn't have a boat, but there was a jetty. Frisk entered it with his fishing rod and a small bucket, and Flowey, once again sitting on the cart, slowly and carefully followed him, trying no to fall into water.

"I still have no idea why I agreed for this..."

"You didn't. I took you by force."

"Exactly! AND YOU CALL YOURSELF MY FRIEND!? FRIENDS DON'T DO SUCH THINGS TO POOR, WHEELCHAIR-BOUND FLOWERS! You're evil, Frisk! EVIL! COMPLETELY EVIL! If I lose my balance, fall down and drown, IT WILL ALL BE YOUR FAULT!"

Meanwhile Sans and Asgore were busy setting up the tent. That is, Asgore was doing most of the work, with Sans sitting off to the side and using telekinesis from time to time to pull a string or two.

Flowey's shouting didn't escape their notice.

"So... Sans, I've got something to ask you about."

"what's the matter?"

"Do you remember when you still were the Royal Scientist?"

Sans pretended to be lost deep in his thoughts.

"huh? was i?... oh, i was, actually. sorry, i forgot. it was no longer than a month..."

Asgore sighed.

"You quit that work yourself. And I understand, why."

"hey, i had a good, moral reason." Sans raised his head. "anyway, why're you askin'?"

Monster king looked towards the boy and flower.

"While working on THAT project... you two pulled out the first few experiments... on flowers, right?"

"true." Sans raised slightly his... frontal bone. " _huh. if he did guess just how flowey was created... it already makes matters much easier,"_ he thought.

"I was wondering... just how did these experiments turn out? Do you know anything about any... unusual results?"

"ya mean... like, a flower suddenly developing a male-gendered mind on his own, then running away before anyone could examine him and finally turning into a soulless sociopath?"

Asgore looked at Flowey, still carefully rolling his cart alongside Frisk.

"So it's true?"

"nah. no idea what're ya talkin' 'bout."

Loud sigh was the only answer he got.

"okay, jokes aside... yep, creatin' that weed was a small... side-effect of a... poor choice in test subjects."

"What exactly made that one so different from the rest?"

"well..." It was the right opportunity to tell him everything. But wasn't Frisk supposed to do it? "...let's just say... there are certain secrets that should be only revealed by certain people. ask the kid 'bout it."

"...What do you mean?" Asgore squinted, expecting some kind of joke or pun.

"i am  _dead_ serious here, man. ya should talk with frisk. he actually knows more than i."

* * *

They spent next few hours in relative silence, sitting on the jetty with fishing rods.

Bottle of ketchup standing next to Sans was already half-empty, and his bucket was half-filled with caught fish. Asgore wasn't as lucky, but still managed to catch several big ones. Meanwhile Frisk and Flowey still didn't have anything.

Frisk was getting bored. What sounded like an exciting adventure turned out to consist of sitting whole day with a rod and hoping to catch something, anything, with perspective of facing endless teasing from Chara and Sans if he doesn't.

Chara herself was thinking about what to tell Asgore once he finally learns she is there. It's been sixteen years. So much changed. Her parents weren't the same as when she died - and her death was what changed them both in the first place. How will he react to her return? Will he even believe? Flowey can prove that he really IS Asriel if he wants - but what about her? She's trapped in Frisk's body, with no way of comunicating with the world other than through him - there isn't even any proof she's actually here. And even if he believes... just what would she tell him? That she accidentally killed his only son and is sorry about that?

Flowey meanwhile looked increasingly annoyed as Sans slowly filled his bucket with more and more fish. As the skeleton reeled out yet another bass and dunked it into the container, he finally lost it.

"Can you stop already!? You don't have to get every single fish in the whole lake!"

His sudden outburst made Sans lose focus just for just long enough for another catch to break away and escape. The skeleton, surprisingly, didn't react in any way - or so Frisk thought, until he looked back into the water and noticed a blue light surrounding the line of Flowey's rod. Before boy could react in any way, Sans' eye blinked - and a sudden pull made Flowey lose his balance and fall into the water.

Frisk immediately casted his rod in where the flower disappeared and quickly reeled it off until he felt yank. He relled back in - and after a moment, Flowey appeared again, soaked, snorting and spitting out water, desperately clutching to the line with his vines and stalk. Much soil got washed away from his pot, and whatever was left basically turned to mud.

"I told... I told you! I told you not to take me here!" He slowly climbed back to the jetty, pulling his pot along. "I'LL GET YOU FOR THAT, BONEHEAD! I COULD DROWN! YOU BASTARD!"

Skeleton just chuckled.

"who would think that flowers can't swim..."

"I'LL THROW YOU TO THE OCEAN WITH CEMENTED FEET SO WE CAN SEE HOW WELL YOU CAN SWIM!" He shook off water from his petals, still eyeing Sans. "YOU COULD HAVE KILLED ME!"

Sans shrugged, extended his hand and once again used telekinesis to pull the rod Flowey dropped out of the water.

"see? i had everythin' under control. had frisk not intervened, i'd just keep ya down there for a minute or so and then pull back up."

Asgore stood up and picked up his rod, chuckling.

"Well... you two just startled everything in the whole lake. It doesn't really seem like we'll capture anything else today, so... let's just call it a day, shall we?"

* * *

A small bonfire was lit up in front of the tent. It was still early, but - as Asgore said - chances of capturing any more fish seemed rather slim.

Flowey leaned slightly towards fire, trying to dry out his stalk, but at the same time too afraid of flame to move close enough.

"Frisk... can we talk about something?"

Boy looked up, surprised. It was Asgore.

"Of course, but... what exactly?"

"I've got an important thing to ask you about..." He noticed Sans raising his skull. "...Could we talk about it alone?"

"Sure, no problem." Frisk stood up and moved out to the side, and Asgore followed him.

"So... regarding that flower..." Boss monster slowly raised his head. "Frisk... I was just wondering... you really like to help everyone, but... it seems that for some reason you consider him especially in need of help... don't get me wrong!", he quickly added. "There is just something... familiar about him. Sans gave me some basic idea about how he was born, but told me that you should know more."

Frisk looked away.

"I should've told you long ago..." Okay, now there was no way out. "Dad... do you... do you remeber..." How to say that? "...Asriel... after he... after he passed away... just what happened to him?"

This was a surprising question.

"...Just like any other monster, he turned to dust... and then, that dust was scattered on the flowers in the garden..." Sudden realisation hit Asgore. "...And on those seeds he brought back from surface!" Monster king looked towards the fire, where Flowey was still sitting. "Most of those seeds withered away and other were taken by Toriel, but... Flowey grew out of one of those left, right?" Frisk nodded. "...Then Alphys started experimenting on that flower... and this..." He had trouble breathing. "...My son... my dearest son..."

"...That's... that's not all." He still had to tell him that Chara is also there. But how to prove it to him? "...When I first fell down... I landed on Chara's grave... and... some of her life essence... just latched onto me." He blinked. "Right now we are sharing body and soul. I know how unbeleivable that sounds, but..." He paused. Asgore really didn't seem convinced.

And this was when Chara decided to take action.

"...Do you remember that one time... when you decided to teach Chara how to use magic and she... ended up almost killing Asriel?" She lowered her... well, Frisk's head. It wasn't the nicest memory, even if everything ended well, but it was the first thing that came to her mind. "This was the one and only time you grounded her... and yet later on you caught her fetching cookies for Asriel. And pretended you didn't see anything. It was kept between you two, right?"

It wouldn't really be that hard to find out about such thing... but yes, it was kept between them, and Frisk wasn't the kind of person to dig deep for seemingly random informations just for a (very tasteless) joke.

But this meant...

"...Chara..." Asgore was stunned. "...What have you two done to yourself..."

* * *

Sans was the first to notice the two coming back, with Asgore visibly shaken by something.

"welp. here goes your anonimity, seaweed."

"Shut up, trashbag."

**Author's Note:**

> ...It's so bad, it's terrible. I know.  
>  Yep, Alphys' surname is Geck. Out of all things I could come up with it was the only one remotely close to ingenious punny names from actual game.  
> Yep, Sans' surname is Gaster. This one shouldn't actually be that surprising.  
> And yep, Undyne was 16 when she became a member of the RG. It might not sound realistic, but keep in mind that she was still a child when Asgore started training her - and alo, taking a combination of different culture and differnet species into account, we can assume that monsters (at least some species) have slightly different definition of adulthood from us.  
> ...I feel a little bad explaining this, but... well, that's what notes are for, right?  
> ...Right?


End file.
